• Pha­se TWO has star­ted with gra­du­al re-opening of restau­rants, busi­nes­ses, shops, hair-dressers, gyms, muse­ums etc. with hotels & public swim­ming pools to fol­low end of this month. Ange­la Mer­kel has now han­ded over respon­si­bi­li­ty to the cabi­net and federal minis­ters
• Cur­r­ent­ly we have no unani­mous rules&regulations in place. Every coun­ty defi­nes their own rela­xa­ti­on of the lock­down. Should the infec­tion rate rise again, very strict local con­fi­ne­ment mea­su­res will be app­lied under the respon­si­bi­li­ty of the local or regio­nal governments.
  In other words: a new, nation-wide shut-down sce­n­a­rio is very unli­kely in the near future.
•  
• Soci­al distan­cing is still man­dato­ry as much as mouth/nose masks. Con­tact restric­tions in public space have been slight­ly lifted. Some federal sta­tes allow events of up to 100 peop­le.
• Bor­ders to our neigh­bou­ring coun­tries are about to open with first ten­ta­ti­ve test-runs with Aus­tria and Fran­ce this week. Switz­er­land, Den­mark, The Nether­lands, Czech Repu­blic, Poland, Bel­gi­um, Luxem­bourg will fol­low next if bila­te­ral agree­ments can be reached.
• The neces­si­ty for 14-days man­dato­ry self-quarantine upon return to Ger­ma­ny when tra­vel­ling wit­hin the EU has been over­ru­led by our con­sti­tu­tio­nal court. It beco­mes only app­li­ca­ble when retur­ning from a third coun­try. It is a good guess that this order is going to be over­ru­led as well pret­ty soon.

“Tem­pe­ra­tu­re checks may beco­me part of Air­line Boar­ding Pro­ces­ses”

• The European sec­tions of ACI (Air­ports Coun­cil Inter­na­tio­nal) is working on a con­cept for man­dato­ry tem­pe­ra­tu­re scree­nings for all embar­king and dis­em­bar­king pas­sen­gers befo­re secu­ri­ty con­trol.
  The Ger­man sec­tion (ADV) is not in favour of this initia­ti­ve as it is con­si­de­red as un-reliable (it cat­ches only bet­ween 25 and 50 per­cent) and far too slow. The Ger­man sec­tion is more in favour of self-responsibility and ran­dom checks. Also, ther­mal came­ras could be an opti­on or digi­tal health pass­ports or apps car­ry­ing COVID-19 test results.
• Frank­furt and Munich Air­ports are rea­dy for going back to the new nor­mal: Soci­al distan­cing is app­lied with seat-blockers and mar­kers on the floor. Ple­xi­glass sepa­ra­tes guests and staff, faci­al masks are man­dato­ry in sen­si­ti­ve are­as, check-in will be done in much smal­ler groups and fre­quen­cy of shut­tles bus­ses will be increa­sed.
• More and more air­ports are going to intro­du­ce self-paid quick tests for Covid-19. After about three hours wai­ting in a dedi­ca­ted area inco­m­ing pas­sen­gers may know whe­ther they are posi­ti­ve or nega­ti­ve. It is not clear yet, whe­ther the new tests make self-quarantine after inter­na­tio­nal tra­vels unne­cessa­ry.
  Cur­r­ent­ly in place at Vien­na Air­port.
• All air­lines make faci­al masks man­dato­ry throughout the who­le flight. No infor­ma­ti­on yet on chan­ges to the inflight ser­vice.

Ger­ma­ny says “Yes” to their sum­mer holi­days

Ger­ma­ny is a beau­ti­ful coun­try with more than 130 natio­nal parks, bio­s­phe­re reser­ves and natu­re parks and more than 200.000 km of mar­ked wal­king trails and over 70.000 km of long-distance cycle rou­tes. Almost end­less oppor­tu­nities for an action-packed active holi­day. And yet, it is not enough space for the expec­ted sud­den release of pent-up custo­mer demand this com­ing sum­mer.

Ger­mans are tra­vel world cham­pi­ons and we want to remain tra­vel world cham­pi­ons.

Fol­lo­wing are fife rea­sons why sum­mer holi­days in Ger­ma­ny alo­ne is hard­ly an opti­on for all 82 Mil­li­on Ger­mans:

1. Ger­mans love beach holi­days but  the­re is not enough hotel and B&B capa­ci­ty espe­ci­al­ly not in the typi­cal holi­day desti­na­ti­ons with a shore line along the Bal­tic Sea and along the North Sea
   In total, Germany’s shore­li­ne only accounts for 2.400 km, all islands inclu­ded.
2. Water tem­pe­ra­tu­re and swim­ming opti­ons. North Sea has enor­mous tidal flats. Both North Sea and Bal­tic Sea have an average water tem­pe­ra­tu­re of bet­ween 13 degrees to up to 19/20 degrees in August. Too cold for most of the holi­day makers. Yes, the­re are beau­ti­ful lakes in Ger­ma­ny. But a lake is not the sea or oce­an, right?
3. In order to redu­ce the num­ber of poten­ti­al holi­day makers and thus the risk of re-infections, the local governments of the four main domestic sum­mer coun­ties – Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower-Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Bava­ria – have set-up cer­tain rules such as a mini­mum of seven nights stay and a reduc­tion of boo­ka­ble hotel capa­ci­ty by 50 %. This will redu­ce capa­ci­ty even more.
4. Less than 10 % of Ger­mans book their domestic sum­mer holi­day through tra­vel agen­ci­es let alo­ne tour ope­ra­tors. Even if Ger­ma­ny had the bed capa­ci­ty for all domestic tra­vels it would not help the ailing tra­vel indus­try. And this indus­try is in dire demand for busi­ness.
5. Sum­mer holi­days in Ger­ma­ny have been expen­si­ve in the past and will get more expen­si­ve. The Ger­man Fer­ry Asso­cia­ti­on North Sea has just announ­ced to increa­se the alrea­dy very high fer­ry fare by 50% this sum­mer.

Ger­mans want to get OUT and out also means crossing bor­ders.

News from lar­ge tour ope­ra­tors: Lon­gest Boo­king Win­dow ever!

• Now , that TUI has secu­red enough finan­ci­al sources, TUI is hoping to open up typi­cal sum­mer desti­na­ti­ons for Ger­mans such as Greece, Cyprus, Bul­ga­ria, Por­tu­gal, the Cana­ry Islands and Balea­ric Islands step by step for sum­mer holi­days.
• It is the first time in histo­ry that we can book holi­days up to 510 days in advan­ce! FTI has ope­ned boo­kings for sum­mer 2021 with empha­sis on packa­ge holi­days to Egypt, Tur­key, UAE, Oman Moroc­co, Tuni­sia, Bul­ga­ria, Ita­ly, Ger­ma­ny and city trips world­wi­de.
  In a next step long-haul packa­ge holi­days will be ope­ned on Amadeus/Bistro with empha­sis on USA, Cana­da, Aus­tra­lia, New Zea­land.

News from popu­lar sum­mer desti­na­ti­ons:

All tou­rism aut­ho­ri­ties are keen to re-open as quick­ly as pos­si­ble with various sce­n­a­ri­os. Regai­ning TRUST is the core com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on mes­sa­ge of all their mar­ke­ting activi­ties.
Pri­va­te sec­tor and hotels in all desti­na­ti­ons are going to increa­se their digi­tal ser­vices to redu­ce the num­ber of peop­le and wai­ting time, espe­ci­al­ly during check-in or at ticket boxes.

All Minis­tries of Tou­rism belie­ve that word of mouth from first guests on their easy, rela­xing and safe “Tra­vels with Coro­na” will bring the necessa­ry push for fur­ther boo­king. The prime objec­tive the­re­fo­re is to get it right throughout the who­le custo­mer jour­ney and at every sin­gle tra­vel touch-point.

Fol­lo­wing is a brief sum­ma­ry of what indi­vi­du­al coun­tries are doing & com­mu­ni­ca­ting to attract boo­kings from Ger­ma­ny.

Tur­key & Egypt:

• Both hotel asso­cia­ti­ons put spe­cial empha­sis on hygie­ne and on extra staff trai­ning. Self-service and buf­fets will be a thing of the past.
• The majo­ri­ty of hotels in Turkey& Egypt are rather lar­ge which is seen as an advan­ta­ge as app­ly­ing soci­al distan­cing in all resort/hotel are­as is easier in a lar­ge hotel on max. 50 % capa­ci­ty.
• Tur­kish hotels will also increa­se the num­ber of medi­cal­ly trai­ned staff and the num­ber of in-house, German-speaking doc­tors.
• Egypt will increa­se digi­tal ser­vices & and re-think the trans­fer chal­len­ges – more pri­va­te limou­si­ne and taxi rather than lar­ge buses. With coach trans­fers, Egypt intends to learn from the air­line indus­try.

Spain:

• Spain is in a dif­fi­cult situa­ti­on as it was/is hit so hard by Coro­na. Safe­ty / secu­ri­ty has top prio­ri­ty for Spain. The Government is cur­r­ent­ly working on a “Covid-Free” Label” for hotels and will increa­se the num­ber of soci­al distan­cing guards on the beaches and in tou­ris­tic hot­spots.
• Balea­ric Islands: Spain eases the com­ple­te shut-down by ope­ning up the smal­ler islands first (Form­en­te­ra, La Gome­ra, El Hier­ro, La Gra­cio­sa). Domestic tra­vel will be allo­wed as of June 22^nd. Most likely European or even inter­na­tio­nal tra­vel will beco­me pos­si­ble as well as of this date.
• Cana­ry Islands: The smal­ler islands have been allo­wed out of shut-down, howe­ver under very strict con­di­ti­ons that make joint guest expe­ri­en­ces pret­ty dif­fi­cult.
  Turis­mo de Gran Cana­ria has been gran­ted 5 Mio Euros for a repo­si­tio­ning of the island’s image.
  Turis­mo de Tene­ri­fe is rea­dy to boun­ce back with a radi­cal­ly new image and stra­te­gy and new tar­get groups: Young tra­velers and young fami­lies who have pre­vious­ly avoi­ded Tene­ri­fe becau­se of its old-age pen­sio­ner image. Cur­r­ent­ly, the tou­rism indus­try is working on an orches­tra­ted relaunch-strategy to be rea­dy for their high sea­son Oct. through to April.
  Tene­ri­fe wants to beco­me an “intel­li­gent tra­vel desti­na­ti­on.”

Por­tu­gal:

• Por­tu­gal has not had many Covid-19 cases. It has exe­cu­t­ed a rather effi­ci­ent and tough cri­sis com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on and will be one of the first coun­tries with a “Clean& Safe” cer­ti­fi­ca­te for the who­le tou­rism indus­try. To recei­ve this cer­ti­fi­ca­te every sin­gle tou­rism sec­tor from tour gui­de to hotel ope­ra­tor must fol­low a very strict pro­to­col for staff secu­ri­ty, hygie­ne and guest rela­ti­ons.

Greece:

• Greece is hoping to ful­ly boun­ce back in July fol­lo­wing a strict 7step pro­to­col set up by the government. Hotels and restau­rants will open as of June 1^st to the domestic mar­ket